Ben Smith
96 episodes listed below
Long-form studio visits for image makers.
A Small Voice is a long-form conversation series centered on photographers and documentary filmmakers. Its strongest moments come when practical craft talk opens into memory, career risk, and the strange routes that lead people toward images.
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A Small Voice is a patient conversation series about photography, documentary film, and the working lives that make both possible. Ben Smith introduces guests with care. Then the episodes settle in. The pace is measured, but not stiff. Recent conversations move through childhood landscapes, early assignments, book projects, feature documentaries, museum visits, software work, agency politics, teaching, and the daily maintenance of a creative practice. The show is especially good at letting a career sound accidental and deliberate at the same time. Ilvy Njiokiktjien talks about ordinary life as a source of images, including the way a dinner table or a field of grass can become meaningful when a photographer keeps looking. Jon McCormack describes photography alongside technology, conservation, and leadership on Apple’s iPhone camera effort. Dragana Jurišić’s appearance is framed through books, collections, and the documentary film The Last Balkan Cowboy. Jessica Dimmock and Zackary Canepari point toward the show’s recent widening from still photography into filmmaking. Philip Blenkinsop and Joachim Ladefoged keep the series connected to older forms of photojournalism, agency life, magazine assignments, and international work. Sometimes the format becomes a field report, as with the Nederlands Foto Museum special from Rotterdam. Those episodes bring in place, travel, architecture, and the host’s own slightly dry, self-aware housekeeping. The tone remains intimate. It is not a lecture series, and it is not built around quick tips. A guest can follow a memory, revise a thought, or explain why a project changed shape. The show often circles back to the practical realities: time, money, websites, sponsorship, archive access, and the problem of having more ideas than weeks to pursue them. Its best episodes make craft feel lived-in rather than abstract. A Small Voice is for listeners who want photographers and filmmakers to speak in full paragraphs, with room for doubt, detours, and the odd laugh. It leaves the finished image in view, but it is more interested in the person who had to go out and make it.
Made for: For photographers, documentary filmmakers, visual arts students, editors, curators, and patient listeners who want the story behind the work. It also suits anyone curious about how creative careers are actually sustained.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its unhurried oral-history feel: biographical setup, career context, process, and practical reality all get room. It favors reflective conversation over hot takes or neatly packaged lessons.
Fortnightly in-depth interviews featuring a diverse range of talented, innovative, world-class photographers from established, award-winning and internationally exhibited stars to young and emerging talents discussing their lives, work and process with fellow photographer, Ben Smith. The most recent 50 episodes are on this free feed, 200+ more are in the archive! TO ACCESS THE FULL ARCHIVE OF PAST EPISODES + SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE CONTENT, BECOME A MEMBER FOR £5 PER MONTH!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Ben Smith turns conversations with photographers and filmmakers into precise studies of visual choices, working methods, and the stories behind the finished frame.
Ben Smith keeps returning to the decisions behind an image: where to stand, what to include, and how a project changes when the original plan fails.
Martin Parr steps toward strangers, and your own camera suddenly looks a little shy.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A patient, practical conversation about documentary craft and ordinary life.
Ben Smith's conversation with Ilvy Njiokiktjien lands in documentary territory that feels careful and humane. A Dutch photojournalist, filmmaker, podcast host, and educator based in Utrecht, she reflects on nearly two decades of work on social and political issues, including her…
A reflective conversation about photography, technology, and conservation, kept in practical focus.
John McCormack's conversation with Ben Smith reads less like a clean career profile and more like a portrait of someone trying to keep photography alive alongside a full-time tech job.
A measured career portrait built around photojournalism, business pressure, and passing skills on.
Joachim Lederfogel's conversation reads as a steady career profile. It follows a Danish photographer through newspaper work, the lift from World Press Photo, the move into network photographers, and a New York Times Magazine assignment from Albania, while keeping an eye on the…
A patient discussion that turns Martin Parr, the camera, and obsession into one clear line of thought.
The conversation follows Ben Smith and Lee Shulman as it opens on Martin Parr's death and on the full-length documentary Shulman directed about him last year.
A focused conversation about family archives, reconstructed images, and a film shaped by absence.
Ben Smith's talk with Rachel Elizabeth Seed follows A Photographic Memory as it grows from family recordings and the material left behind around them.
A warm end-of-year roundup that keeps photography talk, career, and temperament in view.
Ben Smith closes the year with a plainspoken end-of-year episode that looks back at the guests who joined him on A Small Voice. The structure is simple and warm: a quick pass through the year, with a clip from each guest, so the episode feels like a roll call more than a single…
Art historian Tamar Avishai interviews critics, curators, and writers about single paintings and ideas.
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament interview artists about their materials, biography, and process.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins interview film crew about the craft behind specific shots.
Robert Bound interviews artists and reviews new film, book, and music releases with critics.
Sound art from places, recordings, and memory.
Ben Smith talks with Ilvi Nieuwe-Kikchin.
Ben Smith introduces John McCormack as a photographer, nerd, educator, and conservationist.
This episode features an interview with photographer, writer, and filmmaker Dragana Jurišić, focusing on her career achievements, published books, and her current documentary project 'The Last Balkan Cowboy'.
This episode is a special report from Rotterdam, Netherlands, where the host visits a photography museum and shares insights about the city's architecture and his experiences.
This episode features an interview with photographer and filmmaker Zachary Canepari, discussing his work, creative process, and connection to previous guest Jessica Dimmock.
This episode features an interview with photographer and filmmaker Jessica Dimmock, discussing her transition from still photography to moving imagery in documentary work.
This episode features an interview with photographer Philip Blenkinsop, discussing his career and experiences, including a past meeting in Perpignan.
Ben Smith welcomes Joachim Lederfogel and opens the conversation with real admiration for the work.
Ben Smith speaks with Lee Shulman shortly after Martin Parr died.
This episode is a year-in-review compilation of Ben Smith's 2025 interviews with photographers, featuring highlights and memorializing notable photographers who passed away.
Ben Smith speaks with Rachel Elizabeth Seed about A Photographic Memory.
This episode features an interview with photographer Dina Litovsky, discussing her work, Instagram following, and Substack newsletter.
This episode is a year-end review featuring short highlights from interviews with 20 photographers, including special segments from various photography festivals.
This special episode features interviews with photographers at the PhotoMeet portfolio review event in London, offering insights and conversations from the photography community.
This episode features an interview with photographer Chloé Jafé, discussing her adventures and work in Japan.
Ben Smith closes 2023 with the podcast's traditional end-of-year episode.